"Progress"

Small Plates

Artists:

Progress usually connotes something incremental, slow and steady. Or, the exact opposite of what Francisco the Man concern themselves with on the first single from their upcoming debut Loose Ends. There's an organic urgency to "Progress" that's not just welcome, but necessary to distinguish the quartet as they work within an indie-pop sound that's all but consumed their native Los Angeles in the new decade—indie in theory, but with big-tent ambitions, a little shoegaze, a lot of synth-pop, the faintest hint of danceable forms of punk. They've wisely realized they might have only thirty seconds to win you over, tops, and as Scotty Cantino hits a breathless chorus in a voice reminiscent of the presumably defunct Delays' Greg Gilbert, Francisco the Man evoke the title of that band's third record—"everything's the rush."